The editor of THE NUGGET sent the latest issue to me on Wednesday, and I hope to take it to the printer tomorrow. It should, therefore, be ready for me to collect by the middle of next week so that I can post it out before the following weekend.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the ninth and last issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2017-2018 subscription year.

Besides everything else I have been doing over the past few days, I seem to have spent quite some time doing admin tasks on behalf of Wargame Developments.

As is normal at this time of year, I am chasing up members who have booked places at COW (the Conference of Wargamers) but have yet to pay in full. I need to do this about four weeks before the date of the conference so that I can pay the cost of booking Knuston Hall for the weekend. On top of this I am having to try to cope with the new General Date Protection Regulations (GDPR) that comes into force tomorrow.

As the Treasurer and Membership Secretary (and now Data Manager and possibly the Data Protection Officer as well!), I hold the group’s database in a computer file, and the situation would be very simple if we just published THE NUGGET and did nothing else. The data would fall under the category of data that does not require specific consent for me to hold as it is merely a subscription list. However, because we run COW and must share that data with a third party for Health and Safety reasons – in this case Knuston Hall – and because any member of Wargame Developments can book and attend, it was easier to ask for positive consent from every member of Wargame Developments to hold and share that data in accordance with a written policy … which I also had to write! (This involved reading the new Regulations which are – in my opinion – very badly drafted and seem to contradict themselves in places.)

The statements of positive consent have been coming in, and each one has to be recorded and stored so I can show that consent has been given by each individual member. The Data Protection Policy has been written and is about to be published online and in the next copy of THE NUGGET … and as far as I can see, everything is compliant with the new Regulations. This probably puts us ahead of many organisations, some of whom have had teams of people working on this for some time.

As far as I am concerned it has all been very time-consuming, and I can hardly wait to get back to something approaching normality … such as finishing the final stages of publishing my next couple of books.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the eighth and penultimate issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2017-2018 subscription year, and that members who have not already re-subscribed can do so by visiting the relevant page on the Wargame Developments website.

VERY IMPORTANT: I will be including a letter entitled WARGAME DEVELOPMENTS, GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR) AND YOU with THE NUGGET. I will also be sending a copy to members who only receive the PDF version of the magazine. A copy of the letter can also be downloaded from the Wargame Developments website here.

The letter spells out Wargame Developments‘s policy regarding the data we hold about members, how it is protected, and what usage is made of that data. The new regulations require us to do this and to ask for specific permission to hold and use member’s data in accordance with that policy. As I understand it, we cannot accept a tacit form of permission (i.e. you joined, therefore you have tacitly agreed to us holding data about you) but must have explicit permission to hold the data and to use it to contact individual members. This means that if members do not give that permission, we cannot contact them individually after 25th May 2018 … and that includes sending out copies of THE NUGGET by post.

If members wish to send their permission, please could they do so by post to the address that will be at the bottom of the letter or by email. A simple statement to the effect that they give permission for Wargame Developments to contact them by post and email should suffice until next year’s renewal forms are sent out. These will include a specific section where members can select the data they wish Wargame Developments to hold, and a space for a signature.

The editor of THE NUGGET sent the latest issue to me over the weekend, and I hope to take it to the printer later today. With luck it should be ready for me to collect by the end of the week so that I can post it out over the forthcoming weekend.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the eighth and penultimate issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2017-2018 subscription year, and that members who have not already re-subscribed can do so by visiting the relevant page on the Wargame Developments website.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the seventh issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2017-2018 subscription year, and that members who have not already re-subscribed can do so by visiting the relevant page on the Wargame Developments website.

The editor of THE NUGGET sent the latest issue of the magazine to me the day before I went on a two-week cruise, and I have only just been able to take it to the printer. With luck it should be ready for me to collect on Wednesday, and I hope to get it in the post by Friday.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the seventh issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2017-2018 subscription year, and that members who have not already re-subscribed can do so by visiting the relevant page on the Wargame Developments website.